This invention relates to a container shaped conveyable structural element of standard size, comprising corner fittings of standard size for handling the container, a frame bearing said corner fittings in the mutual standard positions thereof, at least one hinged panel supported by the frame and able to swing outwards about an axis lying approximately along the one edge thereof, between an opened position and a closed position, the frame and hinged panel having removable mutual fastening means, as well as at least one stop means for the hinged panel in the opened position thereof.
It should be understood that the term "standard size" in the present specification means "a size fulfilling the international standards ISO for conveying and handling containers".
There are already known conveyable containers of this type which are disclosed, for example in French Patent Application FR-2476716 and Great-Britain Pat. Nos. GB-1,603,613 and GB-1,347,177. In these Patents, a complete or part side wall from a conveyable container, for example a truck-conveyable container, having standard corner fittings for the handling thereof, is supported by the container frame in such a way as to be swingable outwards about an axis lying along the one edge thereof, down to an opened position in which stop fittings lock and support the side wall. In the above publications, the container frame and corner fittings remain completely integral with one another, and in the unfolded position of the movable panel, the plane of the inner side of said panel is staggered relative to the plane of the inner sides of the other container panels.
There are also known containers, possibly conveyable containers, some walls of which are hinged and are unfoldable outwards of the container. There may for example be mentioned those container embodiments described in Belgian Pat. No. BE-838053 in FIGS. 1 to 3, in Belgian Pat. No. BE-883303, in European Patent Application EP 77103, and an International Patent Application WO-84/00573. None of these embodiments, which are all comprised of parallelepiped-shaped containers, fulfill the standard handling standards, as none bear standard corner fittings. In Patent Applications EP-77103 and WO-84/00573, it is rather a matter of walls folded-back on one another, which are unfolded to obtain a structure the volume of which is much larger than the container during conveying thereof. The embodiment described in FIGS. 4 and 5 of Pat. No. BE-838053 pertains to a container bearing standard corner fittings, but in such a case the removable panels are not hinged and swingable, they are only connected to the frame through locking or snapping means.
There are also known standard stackable pallets, which are consequently provided on the end of the four vertical uprights thereof, with standard end fittings which are identical with the container standard corner fittings, said uprights being foldable inwards on the pallet platform to enable stacking such pallets when they are empty. There may notably be mentioned by way of example, Great-Britain Pat. No. GB-1217334 and French Pat. No. FR-1,580,273. In French Pat. No. FR-1,580,273, the lower end fittings from the vertical uprights swing together with the uprights during folding-back, and it is required to provide for an arrangement with twin lower standard corner fittings, to allow handling the pallets in their folded condition. In Pat. No. GB-1217334, the vertical uprights swing without the lower corner fittings as they are folded-back. Such pallets are not however containers and their designers did not have to face the problems of a wall swinging relative to a fixed frame which is also present in the top part of the containers, nor the alignment problems of the hinged wall planes in opened position with the fixed container walls, and the problems for stopping said hinged walls in an opened position.
This invention has for an object the design of conveyable standard-type container-shaped structural elements, which allow swinging at least one hinged panel about an axis lying along the one lengthwise edge thereof together with those corner fittings lying along the opposite edge thereof, while additionally providing a solution to said problems.